butterflies and smiles and laughter. it was a day dylan would have loved. >> three months after his death and i am still in a state of shock. that i know nothing will bring dylan back i am determined to honor him and the others lost that i am dedicated myself to saving other lives to insure that people don't need to go through and the pain that we are going through. if you are a parent, siblings, families, friends and communities. we met this morning with families from the local area, who have shared this experience, and have lost children and while it was very moving to see their inner strength and courage, the look of pain in their eyes has become all too familiar to me. it is the same pain i see in the families who also lost

loved one on 12-14 and the same pain that i notice every time that i look in the mirror. love has so much that connects us because of our losses and while it is helpful to meet with other families who have experienced this and share their experiences, this is the club in which no one would ever choose to be a member. since dylan and his classmates and teachers were murdered we have received hundreds of thousands of cards and remembrances from across the united states and from around the world. these letters are still coming in every day. we are moved that this tragedy has affected and mobilized the nation, we can feel the thirst for change and the need to do things differently. although, there have been many senseless losses before and since sandy hook, we are determined to make this a turning point for our country. our children can't deliver the legacy that we as parents are instilling in them with the morals and the values.

so it is our job as parpts to deliver that legacy forward and be their voice. the change is needed to make our nation safer will take a long time to deliver. but we are not going anywhere. all of us working sandy hook promise are absolutely committed to this cause, and that is why this innovation initiative is so important having so many of the great minds responsible for developing and supporting major advances in technology and recent history for them to turn their attention to solutions to gun violence, mental health, school safety and community. it gives me hope, at a time when hope is most needed. in my family is deeply grateful for this hope and to be part of this positive change that will benefit all of us in the future, thank you.

>> ben and jeremy richmond. >> thank you, for having us today. thank you to the tech industry for coming to our aid. my name is jennifer hensel and this is my husband jeremy richmond, three months ago on december 14th, we lost our only child, daughter of 6 years aviel rose richmond. at the sandy hook elementary school shooting. on that day, mentally unstable gunman changed our lives and the lives of more than 25 other families in one of the worst ways imaginable. we are devastated. in the wake of our grief, and desperate to understand why someone would kill innocent

children why someone would kill my child, we started the aveil foundation. jeremy and i are going to play to our strengths and answer the why. we are scientists and we see the world through an imp erical lens. we established the foundation to address the causes of violence through a focus on brain health. i want to start using this term brain health. because mental health is intangible. it comes with some degree of trepidation and stigma. but we know that there are real physical, manifestations within the brain that can be imaged, measured, quantified and understood. we can work with that. and then, we can fix it. we know that people who commit

these crimes are sick. it is not a coincidence that so many of these tragedies are perpetrated by young men. isolated from their communities, isolated from their support networks, they are alienated, disenfranchised and obsessed. there is something that has gone wrong in these brains. we don't know what that is yet. this is because we have not paid enough attention. but more so, because the brain is complex and difficult to study. we don't know enough and we can't identify and invenen e unless we now how to treat it. here innovation is critical. our questions are not going to be answered in a traditional way. it would have been solved already. we have to explore the under

pinnings of violence with a fresh view, with no assumptions. we need to create technology that allows us to visualize and measure brain functions in an affordable, accurate, and an accessible manner. in our scientific careers we have seen over and over again, seemingly impossible puzzles solved by young, fresh, thinkers. they don't know the rules. they don't live in a box of assumptions. and therefore, they are free to imagine. and that is why we are so thankful for jim and ron and the sandy hook promise. and owe them a great debt of gratitude because this is what they are asking for. they are asking for people to imagine. first, imagine what it is like to lose a loved one at the

hands of a deranged gunman and let that motivate you to do something. imagine that we can identify people at risk of violent behave ors early in their life and intervene, imagine the communitis that support one another. embrace diversety and recognize the value of brain health and then let's go to work. let's create technology that allows us to visualize, and measure brain functions in an affordable, accurate and accessible manner so we can change the landscape of brain health and stop someone from committing a tragedy like these, ever again. thank you.

>> tom pitman. i am one of the co-founders of sandy hook promise, at this point in time we would i like to take some of your questions. it is far too easy. any questions? >> yes. >> (inaudible) >> actually, from... please. please. the effort is just starting it is a hard to predict. but our hope would be that we see lots of innovative ideas

and the 30 vcs luminary vcs and angels will syndicate funding around those ideas and i can't predict a number, i know that it will be a big number because you can't stop innovation. >> yes? >> do you envision the group working in conjunction with the federal lobbying and some of the legislation that we have seen introduced to play a part in that as well. >> of course, legislation is very important as a part of this effort. and we have been very involved with what has been going on in our state and in washington. but legislation is really just one element and we can't rely completely on that and that is why we are here. i have been in the tech industry for 30 years. i have seen what the tech industry can do. i am very excited about this innovation initiative and what we will be able to do in addition to the legislation that is going forward.

>> yes? >> the question was can the tech industrial, alter the software and tech industry. i think that is something that we need to understand as a society and be open to looking at is how do things that are more cultural, such as video games effect our society? and again, that might be something that wouldn't be legislated but it is something that we have to do, that we the people have to do to look at as parents, for example. >> (inaudible) >> well i think what we need to

understand, one thing that we want to do is shine a spot light on those cracks. and on those gaps. and on things that are slipping through. identify those. and then we can look to solutions. and the solutions might be changes in legislation and it might be scientific changes and it might be technology changes. so, our main goal at this point is to say, this is something that needs attention and needs focus. here it is. so where are the issues and what can we do to work on that together. and again, we are hoping that this innovation initiative, this is not just about gun safety, this is about mental health, this is about other technologies that can help with school safety. so certainly we think that it is broad enough to look at all of those. >> i know that one of you said that this was a marathon and not a sprint, do you have a time frame maybe of telling us publicly about your first really good idea? are we talking about weeks or months or something that is going to go on for over several years? >> well, the things are going to happen very soon.

things are going to happen very late. we are going to have efforts that evolve over time. from a marathon perspective, when you look at cultural change, you look at society change that is generational. this could be 20, 30 years, this could be similar to how we deal with drunk driving and how we move forward there. it was not something that happened quickly. in terms of innovation? i believe that we have already seen innovation, and one thing that we are hoping will happen here with more funding is that some of these innovations will see the light of day and come to light and mature sooner and we hope that some are soon and some will take longer. >> do you want to add, please? >> companies already exist in this space and we are going to talk to some of those companies at the town hall at noon. so, it is early days, but this sector already has companies in it for gun safety, and mental

health and school safety. what we want to do is innovate more. so, i would say in a year from now we will be able to point to start ups that started after today that are just starting to grow. i was an early invester in google, facebook and twitter, it takes two to three years before those companies reach scale. but a year from now, we will be able to point to the googles, the facebook and twitters, who are working in gun safety. this is a huge sector for innovation. >> you were asked what sort of a budget this is. this will be better if you give us a low figure and you give us a range. i can tell you that this is going to play better with the financial figure. >> i am happy to give you an estimate. i am hoping a year from now,

that the tech community has invested $15 million in brand new start ups who are seeking innovation for the reduction of gun violence, mental health and school safety. and companies already exist. and this would be seed funding probably in 15 to 20 companies. >> one of the problems in congress is obviously is a lack of unity around what needs to be done particularly around the gun safety issue. within your own, with 50 or 150, how is it handling those differences in opinions about what needs to be done? could that derail this who process? or is there a complete unity? >> in this community? in the tech community? >> yes. >> are you asking about the tech community? >> sure. >> okay. yes. part of the beauty of innovation is that it is

non-partisan. and part of the other beauty of innovation is the best solutions prevail. and so, when we strip away points of view, and focus in on what technologies will actually work. we shift the equation from rhetoric to pragmatics. which products can get get to be field tested? which smart gun technologies will pass the government lab testing? and right now, if you wanted to buy a smart gun, you would have a very difficult time doing it. but what we can do in technology is advance the state, such that you have that option. and so, we are really careful to make sure that we focus in on innovation and use a tried and true, trusted process in

the silicon valley and let the best ideas be the ones that are the ones that are commercially viable. >> give us some ideas, (inaudible). >> sure. the field of smart gun technology is an interesting field. it spans academic research, commercial research, a lot of the federal funding for smart gun technology in the u.s. stopped in the late 90s. and so, part of the excitement that we have here today is the ability to reignite, the innovation and creativity around some of those promising technologies. some of those include pass codes, others include electronic firing pins and others include rfids and so that you need to be in the proximity of a wrist band, of a ring, in order for the gun to

fire. so when we called upon the tech community earlier in january to send us all of their ideas, we heard that there were a lot more ideas that could be pursued. those include gps, and having software systems on the guns. and a bunch of ideas that may seem crazy today. but through the innovative process, we can see which ones are actually viable for safe schools, a lot of them have centralized pa systems. we have pushed the talk systems today. such that there does not need to be a centralized point for emergency response. and these are just some of the ideas that we have already heard and today it is through our nationwide call that we hope to hear even more ideas. and then, see which ones are

the most promising. >> thank you very much for your attention. i think that one thing that you are seeing is we believe that the american way is more than just legislation, the american way is also about using our innovative spirit and we are igniting that today and so thank you very much. [ applause ] ♪